Strand Life Sciences (Strand) announced today the version 2.0 release of its popular next-generation sequencing (NGS) data analysis and visualization platform, Avadis NGS, under a new name: Strand NGS. Strand NGS is built on the same award-winning platform as Strand and Agilent Technologies' GeneSpring®.

This release combines enhancements to Avadis NGS with unique features from the GeneSpring NGS module, through the addition of a Methyl-Seq workflow, direct access to BioCyc and WikiPathways, better support for target enrichment experiments and Multi-Omic Pathway Analysis. The merging of GeneSpring NGS with the existing capabilities of Avadis NGS was prompted by the desire to give researchers using GeneSpring NGS access to the latest developments in NGS data analysis. Previously, GeneSpring NGS workflows were one release version behind the Avadis NGS releases.

Says Vamsi Veeramachaneni, Vice President at Strand Life Sciences: "Combining the unique features of GeneSpring NGS with the latest developments in Avadis NGS made perfect business sense as it offers NGS researchers the best of both products in just one tool. It also allows us to concentrate our development efforts in a more efficient way. For researchers who wish to continue to perform multi-omic analysis by combining NGS and non-NGS data, a bridge for importing the necessary information into GeneSpring is under development and due for release later this year."

About Strand

Strand was founded in 2000 by faculty from the prestigious Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Over 2,000 research laboratories worldwide are licensees of Strand's genomics software products. With a recent investment by Biomark-Capital, Strand now operates on over 25,000-square feet state-of-the-art next-generation sequencing laboratories in Bangalore and has established the Strand Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine, serving over 50 hospitals across India, and with a growing presence in the U.S.